ABSTRACT
Steel silos for bulk materials belong to the category of steel shell structures. This study focuses on the most commonly used structural solution for steel silos: the cylindrical section is made of horizontally corrugated sheets reinforced with external stiffeners. The paper presents buckling load verification procedures contained in the currently applicable European standards and the modifications to these procedures proposed in the draft EN 1993-4-1(2024) of the second generation of this Eurocode. Practical examples of the application of these procedures are demonstrated in the study. An alternative to using standard formulas involves advanced numerical simulations that incorporate observed imperfection patterns and models of the bulk material filling the silo. Such simulations will be presented in the study and their results will serve as the most reliable basis for assessing the load capacity of silo walls. Experimental studies on the buckling of wall stiffeners conducted in laboratory settings and on real-life structures will provide valuable supplementary insights to the work.
